Not sick
by SilverSnowflake9798
Summary: Hakuei comes back to the Kou empire, saying that something is wrong with her. but the rest of her family don't think that she's sick. than what could be happening to her? SinbadxHakuei, but most of the story is based around family.
1. visiting family

**Hi everyone! This story written by request of blood-stained white queen (I hope you like it!). I don't own magi, though that would be awesome if I did! I would make sure that Aladdin got to eat all the food he wanted! Would have put whole family in characters list, but there's a limit and her family is so big!**

"Koumeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii," Koumei patiently waited for his younger brother to stop. He didn't stop. "Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-" How could he hold his breath that long? "Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii." …Oh good, he was done, "Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-"

"YES Kouha, how can I help you?" Kouha snickered at the annoyance on his brother's face.

"When's one-saan coming back?" Really? He went through all that just to ask him when his sister is getting back. He woke him out of his pleasant dream, for THAT? Kouha just continued looked up at him with a pouty face, and though he wanted to, he couldn't just ignore his only younger brother.

"I'm assuming you're talking about cousin Hakuei?" he asked with a sigh. Kouha nodded so quickly his head became a blur. "You know that she's not coming back Kouha." Disbelief crossed his brother's face and his jaw dropped open.

"She's DEAD?"

"NO! But she's not coming back to live here, you know that. She lives in Sindria now."

"No she doesn't." he blinked. Kouha stared back at him, completely sure of himself. _Oh, he's trying to do this now_, Koumei thought to himself rolled his eyes at his brother. First it was sadness, then avoiding everyone, and now he was trying denial. How long was he going to continue with this? He would have noted anger as well, but he was only mad when someone mentioned Sinbad.

"Yes she does, and she has been for a long time now."

"Nooooo,"

"And despite you being in denial about it you can't change the fact that she is now married to-"

"DON'T SAY IT!"

"Sinbad." And that's where the anger kicked in.

"NOOO! NO, NO, NO, it's not true! lalalala I'm not listening!" Koumei had to plug his ears so that his eardrums didn't implode. "That big jerk, taking our sister away! I want her back, why can't she come back? Where is he, I want to have a talk with him, the stupid king!" huh. Koumei thought Judal was the only one who called him stupid king. "Let's go to Sindria and take her back! No one will know!" Koumei immediately regretted giving his brother the extra waffle for breakfast that morning. He was bouncing off the walls.

"We can't kidnap our SISTER Kouha. Not only would that turn all of Sindria against us, but Hakuei would be angry at you as well. And, by the way, it is ILLEGAL." Kouha waved his hand like that little detail wasn't important in the slightest.

"Details, details. You know that's not important. She wants to come back, I can feel it." Koumei raised an eyebrow at him as he leaned back on the couch to try and get more comfortable. This was going to be a LONG conversation.

"Brother, she's been living in Sindria for years now. Don't you think, if she didn't like it there, we would know by now?" Kouha shook his head, and hurried to give his reasoning.

"No, because they wouldn't let her tell us!" Oh boy. "Just think, Sinbad could be threatening her by, uh, putting poison in her food. And if she ever mentions her dislike for anything Sindria related BOOM! She blows up." That sounded just as ridiculous as that theory Kougyoku's advisor had given him years ago saying that Sinbad had kidnapped at attacked Kougyoku. What was wrong with their country and crazy theories? He decided to blame judal.

Though Kouha's worry and stories could be annoying at times, Koumei had to admit it was kind of funny. His brother had an active imagination, and a very set determination that had been helpful to them on and off the battlefield. Not to mention it was nice to see Kouha caring about his family. Over the years he was even able to talk to his big brother Kouen without having to worry about formalities. It was an accomplishment that both of his brothers were very proud of.

And yet both of them still harboured the fear that one day they would find him covered in the blood of his enemies.

"Look, Kouha, I'm glad that you're worried about your sister, but she's in Sindria now. She's happy, and she's fine. You know that she loves Sinbad and he makes her happy."

"I DON'T BELIEVE! IT'S A LIE!" Koumei decided to leave that part be.

"Not to mention all of the generals and people there treat her better than the citizens here did. They value her more than," Kouha started trembling like a rocket. "I mean, we valued her. Our family did, but not all of the citizens and older generals! Don't worry, she knew you cared about her." He calmed down. "Do you really want to take that away from her? She has a place that she belongs. Isn't that good?" at his words Kouha pouted and turned away. He knew his older brother was right. Of course he was, mei was so smart! Just because he was right didn't mean that he was happy about it though.

"Fine." Koumei let out a sigh of relief. "But she could still visit more. I miss my siblings!" at that even Koumei couldn't help but feel bad as well. The two of them had a big family, but not only did a lot of his sisters used to make fun of him or ignore him, but the few family they did have always left. Kouen was busy as an emperor. Kougyoku, who had married Judal, was always going with him around when he had to do whatever it was Magi's did nowadays. Hakuryuu, now the right hand general, had his own problems to deal with as he had to lead his portion of the army. Even Koumei was always busy trying to go from country to country to make sure everything was in order.

"Perhaps we can call her. She might be able to visit soon." At that Kouha lit up.

"Really! You think so?"

"Sure! It might not be for a while, since Sindria is so far away."

"Hi Koumei, Kouha."

"I mean, it's not like I could just say her name and she would just…" he stopped. Turning, he came face to face with the women of the hour. Their sister Hakuei stood behind them, waving happily, as if she had been there the whole time. "…appear…"

"Wow Koumei! Maybe you really are a magician!" Hakuei laughed as Kouha ran into his sister's arms. "Hakuei, I've missed you so much! Did you have to run away? Don't worry, we'll protect you from him!" all that did was make Hakuei laugh even harder as she hugged her younger cousin.

"Looks like you haven't changed at all Kouha," she commented, but then took a step back to correct herself. "Actually, it looks like you've gotten quite taller." Kouha puffed up his chest in pride.

"Yup! I'm almost as tall as Brother Mei and 'En now aren't I?" Koumei rolled his eyes.

"Maybe, but he still acts like he's ten." They both ignored the 'hey' Kouha shot back at his brother as Hakuei came over and hugged him as well. "It's good to see you Hakuei." She nodded in agreement as she pulled back. Looking around her he checked the scene behind her. "Where's Sinbad? Isn't he with you?"

"No, she ran away just like I said she did! Koumei, we have to hide her before anyone finds out!" he had to admit; his brother was very persistent.

"Kouha, Hakuei didn't run away from Sindria."

"Well, I suppose it did." Both of them turned to stare at her.

"…what?"

"YES! I was right! See, I told you Mei that she didn't like it there! Don't worry sister, I already have a plan set up for this, it's all prepared!" he had a PLAN? Reaching in his pocket he pulled out what looked like a map of the Kou Empire. "First, we need to find Dorji and Toya. They'll hide you away in one of their tents over on the west side of Kou. Make sure to tell them its operation No-more-Sinbad. When Sinbad comes looking for you first we'll tell him that you went out to the forest in the north, but then when he looks for you we're going to have to fake your death. Koumei, that's where you come in, because you're going to have to use your djinn to,"

"Whoa, whoa Kouha, it's nothing like that!" Hakuei reassured him, pushing the map down. "I didn't leave because I dislike Sindria or was angry at him. I just didn't tell him I was leaving is all. He was away on a mission when I left, so I had to tell Spartos and Hinahoho instead." Kouha's face fell just as quickly as it had lit up.

"So…you don't need this?" Hakuei shook his head and Kouha hung his head low, stuffing the map into his pocket again. Koumei almost felt bad for him. But he had to admit, it was impressive that he had already thought out a plan. The fact that he kept that plan in his pocket wherever he went worried him.

"Then why did you come Hakuei? If everything's alright, did you just come to visit?" Hakuei gave him a smile, but it was a sad smile. She shook her head, showing off the new Sindrian trinkets that hung in her hair.

"Unfortunately no. Not everything's alright." Kouha lit up again. "But the problem is NOT with Sindria." and his face fell. "I actually came to see Judal. Is he here?" Koumei tried to remember if their countries oracle had decided to take a trip around the country again. Luckily for them, he remembered the Kougyoku was making him stay at least for a week or two so that she could rest from that last trip they had went on.

"I think so. But why do you want to talk to him?" His question made Hakuei turn a small shade of pink and she couldn't make eye contact.

"I'm just…It's a health thing." Both of her cousins started to worry.

"What's wrong? Are you sick? Is it a disease?"

"ARE YOU DYING?" the other two glared at Kouha and he shrugged sheepishly. "Just asking."

"No, I am not dying, and no I'm not sick. At least I don't think so." When both of them frowned it showed that they didn't understand. "I'm not sure what it is really. Lately I've just been feeling like something's wrong with me, and I thought Judal might be able to help find out what. If I'm cursed or had some magic used against me I'd like to know. I would have asked Yamuriah or Aladdin but…"

"But they were both gone with Sinbad." Hakuei nodded sheepishly. What poor timing. "Alright, let's go find him. But what kind of symptoms are you having?" the two of them headed out of them room and into the hallway. There were a few people walking past, but no one was really paying too much attention to them. A few people noticed Hakuei there when she shouldn't be, but none of them commented.

"Nothing to serious, I assure you. Just small things that have been worrying me a bit. I've been noticing smells a lot more often, things like oranges and fish. Sleep is hard, and sometimes I'm angry one moment and mad another. Also my stomach has been very sore, but the doctors all say nothing is broken. That's why I thought it might be magic, because it could be something that those doctors aren't trained to find…What?" she stopped when she noticed that both of them were staring at her with wide eyes. They looked like they were going to fall out of their heads. "What? What's wrong? Is there something on my dress?" she quickly checked, but saw that her Sindrian styled clothing was the same as ever. Maybe they weren't used to seeing her in that style of clothing.

"...Um…Hakuei…I don't think you're injured," Koumei hesitantly told her. "Those symptoms sound very…common." At his words Hakuei brightened.

"Really? Well that's a relief. What do you think it is then?" Koumei glanced back at Kouha. He just stared back at him, as lost for words as he was.

"It…it sounds like you're,"

"One-saan, are you PREGNANT?"


	2. Impossible

impossible

Hakuryuu was walking down the hallway of the Kou Empire, having just got back from a mission over at the southern sea. He was feeling pretty good right then. They were able to defeat the pirates with the help of Olba and his family, and not a single person had gotten hurt. Also seeing Olba was pretty cool. After the two of them had gotten over their differences they got along quite well. Now he was back at home, and he was excited. As soon as he got to Kouen to report the mission, he would be able to take a day off. Maybe he would contact sir Alibaba and see how he was doing. Or perhaps he would just rest and read some of the scrolls at the library. Oh, he could cook! He would make a large cake, and share it with his siblings! Chocolate of course, since it was Kougyoku's favourite and the easiest to make. Let's see, he would need sugar, icing, decorations absolutely, chocolate, milk-

"Hakuei, you're PREGNANT!" And just like that, his happy mood vanished. Running around the corner he found his big sister with Koumei and Kouha, who was jumping around in an excited frenzy. "My cousin is pregnant, this is great! Does that make me an uncle? Oh my gosh, I get to be an uncle!"

"No, I'm not! Kouha, stop jumping, I'm not pregnant!" Koumei was glancing at his sister, missing the same confidence that she had.

"Are you sure Hakuei? The way you describe it, those are all symptoms for someone being,"

"NO, there is no way I am pregnant!"

"One-saan?"

"It's absolutely impossible, this can't be…oh, hi Hakuryuu." Her brother just stared at her, mouth hanging open. Poor Hakuryuu had no idea what to say, he was completely dumbfounded. Should he be happy about this, or was it all wrong just like she was saying it was? Hakuei nervously tried to tell her brother the truth and save him from his confusion. "D-don't listen Hakuryuu, I'm not pregnant really." That didn't convince Hakuryuu. He had heard that before, when his uncle had always insisted that he didn't have a baby with that women and then hey, there was Kougyoku.

"Are…are you sure sister? That's really not something that you should take lightly." Hakuei groaned and covered her face with her hands.

"No, really, don't worry. I'm just not feeling good is all, there's no way that I could be pregnant." Hakuryuu glanced at Koumei who gave him the look that said, _we don't believe her. _

"Cousin Hakuei, there's nothing wrong with having a child. You shouldn't be embarrassed, it's a good thing." Kouha cut in quickly.

"Yeah, unless Sinbad is the dad." All three of them turned to stare at him.

"No…no that is not the problem here…"

"Why would that be a bad thing Kouha," Hakuryuu questioned him. "He's her husband. Who else would it be?"

"I don't know," Kouha shrugged. "But it can't be Sinbad. I told him when you left to Sindria that he wasn't ever allowed to touch you, so that means that you couldn't have had a kid with him right?" Hakuei didn't comment. "…Right?" … "He didn't touch you right?" her cheeks turned red. "RIGHT?"

"…well…"

"I'm gonna kill him."

"Oh what were you expecting Kouha," Koumei scolded his younger brother. "They have been married around 3 years. Married people can…hold hands and stuff." Koumei started turning red at the suggestion and Hakuryuu had already frozen at the beginning of that conversation. "B-besides, if it wasn't Sinbad, that would mean that she cheated on him, and we all know that Hakuei wouldn't do that right?"

Kouha didn't budge. "Sister, what country did you say it was that he went to?" She decided it was best not to tell him.

"Look, all of that doesn't matter because I'm not pregnant!"

"Well that's not exactly true. I mean if you want proof than…well…" Hakuei waited for him to ask the question patiently. "Er…I don't know how to ask this…" she waited some more. "When…was the last time-" Hakuei hit her brother on the head, sending him toppling on the ground.

"That's none of your business!" the lump on his head grew as he hurried to defend himself.

"No, not THAT! I meant when was the last time you…uh…were sick." Not one of them understood what he was talking about. "Like, the sickness only a women could have." Still they all had blank looks on their faces, so he gave up his dignity for a moment and just said it. "That time of month." All of them let out and oh sound of understanding, before shivering and turning bright shades of red. The three boys all turned to Hakuei and waited for her answer. She blushed all the more.

"t-that's not really something I like to share."

"You really think we want to KNOW?" Hakuryuu exclaimed. "But it's the best way to decide one way or another. Unless you want to tell us that…other thing. And please, please don't say that, I really don't want to know!" Hakuryuu begged his sister, already horrified at the image of his sister with Sinbad like that. After going to Sindria all those years ago and seeing Sinbad with girls he didn't care too much about he didn't want to KNOW what he did to someone he loved. The more he tried not to think about it, the more it continued to invade his brain. Oh gosh he was going to be sick.

"Look, it really doesn't matter either way whether…that has come or not. Because I CAN'T have kids!" Koumei was both tired and relieved. Tired because she was refusing to sway, but relieved because he had been very disturbed by the way the conversation had turned and was grateful for a way out.

"Cousin, just believing that you aren't having a kid doesn't mean that you can't," she interrupted him.

"No, that's not what I mean. I really, physically, cannot have a child." All three of them shut up at that. Even Kouha, who had been silently fuming in the corner thinking of ways to destroy Sinbad in his sleep. No, he would be awake, so he could feel the pain.

"What do you mean One-saan?" Kouha asked her. She sighed, and revealed to the three of them something that she had only ever told Sinbad.

"You all know remember when I went on the dungeon trip?" they all nodded. "Well, when I was there I was injured very badly. When I got out the doctors were able to heal me, but they had to take away any chances I had to have a child. It was that or my life," she added on a sad note, glancing at the ground. Her family stood around her in stunned silence, not sure what to say. She saved them the trouble by shaking it off and continuing, "That's part of the reason I have so many household vessels. Paimon felt guilty about what she had done, so she tries to make up for it by helping me getting me more soldiers." Her words didn't help, all three of them not sure what to say.

Hakuryuu was the most dumbfounded. "Sister I…I had no idea." Hakuryuu couldn't imagine his sister finding that out. She had only gone to the dungeon when she was very young, 17 at the most. It must have been difficult, discovering at that age that you couldn't have a child. His two brothers nodded to his words, unsure of what else to do. Hakuei just shrugged, trying to shake it all off.

"It's not that big a deal anymore. It bothered me at first, but it's alright. I never really wanted to have children anyway, and Sinbad said that he was alright with it. but anyway, that's why I can't be pregnant." Koumei and Kouha were brought back to the present, but Hakuryuu still frowned at his sister's words. Not wanting to have a kid? Why wouldn't she? She was the one who had helped raised him, and helped take care of many of the kids in the royal palace. She loved kids! Why wouldn't she want her own?

Koumei didn't catch that, returning to the task at hand. "Alright, fine. So it's likely you are not pregnant. But those symptoms still sound like ones that someone pregnant would have, so that means something is wrong." Hakuei nodded, happy everything was on track again. "I guess we're just going to find Judal then."

"Right." and the three of them headed down the corridor, on their way to find Judal. "Last I checked he was in the study," Hakuryuu told them. So they all headed that way.

"Hey sister," Kouha got her attention. "I know it's unlikely, but say that hypothetically you really were having a kid,"

Hakuei sighed, giving up on trying to continue to say it was impossible when she had already said all she could. "Yes Kouha, what about it?"

"Would I get to pick the name?" she raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah, it would be a cool name. And it would be respectful to Sinbad, even though I hate the stupid, conniving, deceitful," he stopped when he saw her glare. "A-anyway, it would be a really cool name! Something like thunderbolt, since Sinbad has that lighting djinn. Actually, that would be really cool, thunderbolt. Or maybe lightning." Okay, even if she was having a child, which she wasn't, there was no way she would ever, EVER name him lightning. Ever.

"What if it's a girl?" Kouha looked at her. He didn't seem to have a problem with naming a girl thunderbolt. "No Kouha, you don't get to pick the name. If I was having a kid-which I'm NOT- it would be up to me and Sinbad I suppose." Kouha pouted at her answer, but quickly came back with a smile.

"Fine, but what if I think of a name that is really, really good that both of you would like?" Hakuei thought about it.

"Well, if we both really like it, than I guess it wouldn't hurt. But we get to choose it in the end." Kouha lit up like a Christmas tree and started skipping next to the group.

"Yes! Okay, my options are thunderbolt, Kouha Jr. the master, phoenix," Koumei had to interrupt him before he got carried away.

"Kouha, Hakuei isn't actually pregnant," he finally had agreed that with the explanation she had given, there was very little chance she actually was pregnant. "You can stop thinking of names, she won't have anyone to pick them for. If you want to change your own name go ahead." He stopped skipping so he could roll his eyes at his brother.

"That would be silly. Why would I call myself Kouha Jr? That would make no sense." Koumei opened his mouth to argue, but closed it, turned, and continued walking. There were some fights that were better to leave well enough alone.

After a while of awkward silence, they found their way to the study where Judal and Kougyoku were spending their time. All of them were slightly curious as to what they would be doing in the study, since as far as they knew neither of they were very enthusiastic readers. When they got there, it wasn't hard to find out. "Timber!" Kougyoku called as she pushed over what looked like a giant tower of scrolls on top of Judal, sending him sprawling to the ground and Kougyoku laughing hysterically.

Using his magic he pushed all of the scrolls away and floated in the air above her. "Hey, I wasn't done building that!" Kougyoku rolled her eyes.

"Please, you could make another one in less than a minute. I really don't see the problem." Judal glared at her, but that a evil smile came up on his face.

"Well let's see how you like it!" with a wave of his wand he gathered together all of the scrolls while Kougyoku began running and screaming in mock terror. Without any mercy in his eyes he dropped the whole pile on top of her sending her to the ground as well. He laughed as he flew over to help her up, the blush and pout on her face making him laugh even harder. That was when the two of them realized that they had an audience. "Oh, hey guys. What are you doin' here?"

"We came looking for you," Koumei told him. Then referring to the mess they had made, "You're going to clean this up right?" the look that they gave each other showed that they really hadn't been planning to. He groaned, just imagining his brother En's face if he saw his precious library in pieces. Really, the two of them should have thought these things through.

Kouha on the other hand laughed at the scene. "Did the two of you just have a book fight? Judal won right?" Kougyoku pouted at him While Judal and Kouha air high fived each other. Koumei was never sure why Kouha never seemed to have a problem with Judal, even though he married his sister as well. Maybe it was because Kouha liked Judal ahead of time.

Then Kougyoku noticed Hakuei at his side. "Hakuei, you're here! What are you doing here, did you come to visit?" jumping out of the pile she ran over the scrolls to get to her and Koumei saw his life flash before his eyes. Oblivious to her brother's fear she hugged Hakuei so tight she thought her bones were going to shatter. "Oh, for whatever reason you are here, it must be a good one! It's wonderful to see you, you need to visit more often!" A realization hit her and she pulled back quickly. "Is my friend Alibaba with you? I heard he was going to Sindria, and I would love to see my best friend again!" and Hakuei suddenly had become old news.

"He, his friends went with Sinbad to go to the Parthevia country. Apparently their magi wanted to meet Sinbad and Alibaba so that he could personally know the leaders of Sindria and Balabaad. (**In this story Alibaba became the leader of his country again.) **I'm here on my own. Actually, I need to speak with Judal." Judal shot up and Kougyoku looked at her in confusion. "It's just something quick, I promise."

"Well," Judal got up, speaking in a half serious, half mocking tone. "I'm flattered that the queen of Sindria would come all this way just to talk too little old me. What could I possibly do that would be worth all the trouble of this very long trip?" It wasn't that long…not really, if she took the correct shortcuts…

"Hakuei's sick," Hakuryuu told him. "We aren't sure what it is, so we all thought that you would be able to find out what's wrong with her. She would have gone to her doctors but they were all away." Judal raised an eyebrow but shrugged, deciding to not question it.

"Alright. What's up, how're you feeling? I'm guessing it's something magic related, or else you wouldn't be coming to me." Hakuei wished that she would be able to say that, but she shook her head.

"No, it's just…I don't know, they are symptoms that just don't…" Judal had stopped paying attention to what she was saying. Instead he was staring at her, his red eyes glowing more than usual and his jaw had dropped open. "What? What's wrong?"

"Holy crap Hakuei," he murmured under his breath. "Are you pregnant?"

**Hi everyone, here's the second chapter. Thank you to the people who fav, follow and review. It's really encouraging, thank you very much. I own nothing other than this story. Oh, and to Saphire Blue Frost, I can write a story about Judal and Kougyoku, but if you don't mind I'm not going to start until I finish this one, just so I'm not working on more than one story at once. Thank you! **


	3. The magi's help

The magi's help

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!"

"Wha-OW!"

"I hope you realize that the more you say that doesn't mean you can change what he just said. And neither will hitting Judal on the head with a book." Quicker than anyone expected it to happen, Hakuei had grabbed the nearest book, hit Judal straight between the eyes and sent him sprawling to the floor again. "And hurting the oracle probably isn't going to make him want to help you."

Judal grumbled, pulling himself up. Kougyoku laughed at him a bit, and even when he glared at her she didn't stop. "Hey, I was just saying. Was it supposed to be a secret or something?"

"No, it was not supposed to be a secret because it's not true! There is no way I'm pregnant, it's impossible!" Judal raised his eyebrow.

"It ain't impossible…as long as you and Sinbad," He cut himself off when Kouha started putting on his djinn equip. After seeing how Kouha treated Sinbad when he was first engaged to his sister, he made sure to become very good friends with him so he wouldn't go through the same treatment when he married Kougyoku. He thanked everything that he didn't try to kill him on a daily basis. Then again, he never found out who had put that poisonous snake in his bed a few nights ago… "Look, I wasn't trying to say you were fat or anything like that."

"Not saying that she isn't," Hakuryuu teased.

"Hey!"

"I was just commenting on the level of rukh you have. That's usually how I guess. But hey, I could be wrong." Everyone's blank stares told him that they didn't get the connection. He groaned and mumbled something like 'non magi's.' "When a new life is born, they start to get rukh of their own. So whenever I see someone pregnant than I see a lot more rukh around them. And Hakuei, heck, you've got a whole lot of Rukh around you." He winced a bit. "And it's really bright. Actually, it kind of hurts my eyes, can I get some shades?" stepping away from the group he hurried over to the shelves to find something that would cover his eyes. As he did all eyes turned to the now very pale Hakuei standing in the middle.

"…so I still get to pick the name right?" thanks for the helpful comment Kouha.

"No, you don't get to pick the name because I'm not going to have a name because I'M NOT PREGNANT!" she ended up screaming at the end, shocking all of them Hakuei hardly ever screamed. Whenever she was angry it was a quick scream, or her voice would be more controlled. When she realized what she had done she died down. "Sorry. I can't control my emotions lately."

Judal raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh." She turned pale.

"NO, that does not mean anything! I'm sick that's it!" Koumei wanted to agree with Judal, considering the way that she was acting, but her arguments before were solid. If she can't have a child than she can't have a child. There would be nothing that she could do about that.

"Er…is there any way you can be sure Judal? It could be something with her djinn? That could be why she's got a lot more rukh around him." Judal pondered the thought.

"It's possible I guess…but kinda unlikely. Stupid prince or princess is probably the one causing the added rukh. There isn't anything I know about that paimon that could be causing added rukh as well as mood swings." Hakuei opened her mouth to argue, but then stopped and turned to him. Looking around he realized that everyone was looking at him as well. "What? Oh, stupid prince and princess? I'm not sure if it's a girl or a boy, so I did both."

"I'M NOT PREGNANT!"

"Why are you calling it…the potential it…that?"

"That's what its name is going to be. Than it matches its dad, stupid king." Kouha started having a fit.

"I get to pick the name!" no one said he did.

"Hey, I'm the magi, super powerful oracle guy. I think that if anyone here is powerful enough to pick the name, than it should be me." since when did strength result in name calling privilege? Kouha seemed to have a problem with this, as he argued angrily with him. No one was really paying attention, but it sounded like they were either arguing over who got to pick the name, or trying to compromise on the best name they could think of.

Hakuei looked like she was starting to panic. It was impossible, this was impossible, was anyone considering the fact that something could be wrong with her? "Judal, there's got to be some way that you can prove that I'm not pregnant, so we can figure out the actual problem that I'm having. If we continue to look into this, which really can't be true, we won't find the real problem." Hakuryuu glanced at his sister a little worried. Maybe she really was just worried about the fact that she might be sick, but she seemed very against the fact that she was having a child. Why would she? Like he had thought earlier, she loved kids. What would she have against having her own? Shouldn't she be happy about it?

Judal turned away from his conversation with Kouha to stare at her. "Do I look like some kind of lab coated doctor to you? I don't know how to figure it out, I only know magic that blows stuff up. If you want I can make your unborn baby go boom." All of them glared at him, annoyed at what he was doing. Even Kougyoku was glaring at her husband. "Come on babe I was just kidding." Kougyoku shook her head at him, while the rest of them felt a little uncomfortable about his name for her.

"Anyway…than what can we do? Hakuei's right, we need to find out the answer to this one way or another," Koumei told him, but Judal shook his head.

"Sorry princy, but there isn't anything that I can do. You need to find a doctor, and depending on how long she's been pregnant for, he'd better be a pretty good one. If the baby's really young, it'd take some really skilled magic to tell if she was pregnant or not." He frowned, trying to ponder that idea. He didn't think they had any doctors or magicians in the country who would be that skilled in medicine. Most of their magicians specialized in battle techniques. "Not sure there's any other way to be sure really."

"I doubt that we have any…but I supposed trying to find one is better than staying here and twiddling our thumbs." Everyone nodded, and the group, Judal and Kougyoku added, headed out on the look for a doctor. On the way, most of the group didn't say anything. Not that they didn't have anything to say, but they wouldn't have been heard over the sound of Judal and Kouha arguing over the name for the boy or girl. If it was a girl Judal wanted to name her stupid princess, while Kouha wanted to name her miss thunderbolt. If it was a boy stupid prince or lightning. Hakuei hated both of those names, so they didn't have too much hope for that.

It was Kouygoku that stopped them on their little walk. "Friend Alibaba!" All of them turned in surprise as Kougyoku ran into the kitchen. Inside she hugged King Alibaba, Queen Morgianna and Magi Aladdin. Who, by the way, was eating a lot of food. Mostly Watermelons and fish, but there were some cakes and other foods lying around here and there. Aladdin had grown as well over the years, now almost as tall as Kouha. But, since he was a year younger than him, he still wasn't able to reach that level. Alibaba turned quick enough to catch Kougyoku as she hugged him. "Oh it's so good to see you my friend!"

"Yeah, you two Kougyoku!" he hugged her back before they let each other go. Kougyoku gave a polite wave to Aladdin and Morgianna who wasn't as much of a hugger, and Aladdin had watermelon juice covering his hands. The rest of the group walked in and Judal came over and put his arm around Kougyoku possessively. He seemed to be okay with Alibaba and Kougyoku's friendship for the most part, but he didn't like it when they got so close.

Hakuryuu was the next one to speak up. "Sir Aladdin, what are you all doing here? I thought that you had gone to Parthevia to introduce sir Alibaba to the magi there." Aladdin looked up at him, having to swallow his food before answering.

"Mmf, mwe did. But it didn't take as long because Titus already knows me. He said whoever I trusts he trusts." It was very convenient for their country that their magi Aladdin seemed to somehow know just about everyone he ran into. They were waiting for the day that a large hulking monster would come and try to destroy everything but would stop because he was friends with Aladdin. It was only a matter of time. "Your food here is really good. I can see why you're such a good cook Hakuryuu." Hakuryuu was about to thank him, but Hakuei spoke up first.

"Do you have any watermelon to spare?" before he answered Hakuei walked over and grabbed a piece. It was gone before anyone could even register that she had taken the food. "Mm, these ones have lots of flavour to them." everyone was shocked as she took another one and somehow ate it in less than ten seconds and smiled when she was done. As she started to take another one she noticed everyone staring at her with wide eyes. "What?"

"Sister…you just ate a watermelon."

"So?" she asked as she ate another.

"…You hate watermelon."

"Do I?" she glanced down at the food in her hands. "Huh. Maybe I just got over it after a while. The food tastes pretty good once you get used to it I think." Everyone stared in open mouthed shock as she continued to eat the one fruit that when she was a child she vowed she would never eat till her last breath. Koumei was the one who began to match the strange act to their current predicament.

"Hakuei, did you start eating watermelon when you started feeling ill?" she took another bite as she thought about it, ignoring the heartbroken look Aladdin got as another one of his precious watermelon's disappeared from his sight. He could hear the poor thing crying out in his mind, _oh please don't let her eat us master Aladdin! We are so delicious, and you should be the one who gets to eat us! _

"I think so." the group all glanced at each other, starting to put the pieces in place. As they did Hakuei realized what she had just said and her eyes widened. "No, that doesn't mean anything though! I was just starting to eat watermelon more, it doesn't mean anything!"

Kouha questioned her, "Have you eaten much other than watermelon since you've been starting to feel sick cousin?"

"…No."

"Told you so," Judal snickered.

"NO, it does not mean anything! It's just a coincidence, it has nothing to do with my other conditions!" Alibaba and Morgianna looked at each other. Them, and their magi who was now doing all he could to hide the few watermelons he had left, didn't know what they were all talking about? When Kougyoku saw this, she hurried to explain.

"Oh, we think Hakuei's pregnant."

"WHAT?" Alibaba jumped up in shock, and even Aladdin dropped the fruit he had been trying to hide in his hat. Morgianna was surprised at first, but that she gave the queen a quick bow in congratulations. Alibaba, once he had gotten over his initial shock, hurried to do the same, not noticing how afraid Hakuei seemed to be at their actions. "But Hakuei's denying it a lot, so we wanted to find a good doctor who can check to make sure if she really is pregnant or not." Aladdin spoke up this time.

"How about you talk to Sphintus? He's a really good doctor, and he had come with us back from Parthevia to try some new medical techniques with Yamu's magic tools." At his words the group seemed happy, but as they did Hakuei caught onto something that didn't match.

"Hold on, if he went to Sindria with Sinbad, wouldn't he be there now? It would take some time to get back." Aladdin turned to her with a smile.

"Oh don't worry about that one-saan. Sphintus came here with a lot of us. When we heard you had come here some of us came to see why, and Sphintus happened to be on the boat." Everyone else seemed to be okay with that…all but Hakuei. As she matched the pieces of information that Aladdin had given her to the information that she already had, her heart began to sink in fear. Maybe she was wrong. There was no way that could happen, and especially not now, it would be the worst time!

"Aladdin…Did Sinbad come in the boat with you?" at her words everyone froze at the suggestion. Oh snap, Sinbad. What would he say if he heard that his wife might be pregnant? Aladdin turned to her, oblivious to everyone's worry.

"Uncle Sin? No of course not." They all let out a sigh of relief.

"He came in the boat behind us."

**Hey, sorry if I spelled some of the names wrong here. I forget spelling for countries and the like. hope you all enjoy! **


	4. Finding a doctor

Finding a doctor

"Emperor Kouen." Kouen looked up to the servant bowing at his door. "The King of Sindria has arrived at the docks." And he frowned. Sinbad wasn't scheduled to come to his kingdom. The only time he came was when there was a problem with al-thamen, they had to discuss something for the treaty, a scheduled event that was part of the treaty or…

Hakuei.

"I'll be right there," he told the servant, who bowed and hurried on his way. He got up, cleaning up his scrolls and putting them on the shelves. If it was Hakuei, than she had probably come to visit her siblings again. As far as he knew she was enjoying her time at Sindria, but communication was hard, and the only way they could really talk other than visiting was either by sending letters or using one of their countries magicians. And that used a lot of their energy, and Hakuei didn't like bothering her too much. If that was the reason though, at least Kouha would be happy. He'd been wanting to see his cousin so much. It was worse when Kougyoku also married Judal and began traveling a lot, and now Kouen was hearing rumors of him kidnapping his older sisters. It was a relief that he didn't act this was towards ALL of their sisters.

Arriving at the docks Kouen found Sinbad and two of his generals, the finalist and his adviser. Along with them was a younger boy who Kouen didn't know the name of, but recognized him as one of the magicians who fought in the Magnustand war. As he approached Sinbad saw him coming and greeted him with a smile. "Hey brother En!" he groaned.

"King Sinbad, I don't think I should have had to tell you this many times not to call me that!" Sinbad pouted at him, annoyed. At his side both of his friends shook his heads and he guessed that they agreed with Kouen. Sinbad, however intelligent he was, he never seemed to know when it was the wrong time to say something. Kouen thought that he was simply impulsive. Kouha had adapted the name Judal called him and went with 'stupid king.'

"Aw come on Kouen. We are brothers through marriage now! What's wrong, can't accept me brother En?" he cringed at the name all the more. Honestly, did this man want him to join Kouha's side? It wasn't that he had anything against Sinbad but the NAME….It was bad enough Kouha called him that, but now the king of Sindria to? That was one step to far.

"Anyway," he coughed to try and get the attention back to more serious matters-than maybe he would address him more formally- "What can I do you for Sinbad? I didn't think we had any scheduled meetings for another year or two." As part of the treaty, the countries agreed to meet every so often to discuss what is going on in each other's country and possibly hold events to promote more alliances and friendships between the people. That last part had been Sinbad's idea, and privately it had been his secret excuse to hold more parties.

But at his words Sinbad became very serious. Since he was such an easy going fellow most of the time it meant that it was something that was very important to him. "I came looking for Hakuei. Hinahoho said that she came here, but she didn't say why or for how long. As well our doctors were saying that she wasn't feeling well, so she shouldn't have any reason to be traveling while sick. We just came to make sure that she is okay." Kouen was taken back at this information. Firstly because his cousin was sick, but secondly that she was supposed to be there.

"I'm sorry king Sinbad, but if Hakuei is here, I have no knowledge of it. Your welcome to look, but I don't think that she is here." A brief look of panic flashed over Sinbad's face, but was gone as soon as it had appeared. She wasn't there? Than where could she be? Hakuei hated it when people made a fuss over her, since she hated being the centre of attention. So why would she leave without a good explanation? Did she think she would have been back already? But that meant something went wrong. If she was sick than…Sinbad nodded to his suggestion, so Kouen motioned for his soldiers to come over. "Your generals may look wherever you like throughout the country, as long as they have some of my soldiers with them." he nodded and Jafar, Masrur and the boy Kouen didn't recognize followed the soldiers to look around the Kou palace. "King Sinbad, you can come look with me."

"You shouldn't worry King Sinbad. We know that my cousin can handle whatever situation she is put in."

…

"HE'S HERE? RIGHT NOW?" Aladdin tentatively nodded, taking a few very cautious steps back as he did. "No, no, no he can't be here! This we haven't fixed everything, we haven't figured out what's wrong with me!"

"If you people would listen to me we would," Judal moped but no one paid any attention to him. They had bigger worries.

"Oh man, what's he going to say if Hakuei's pregnant?" Alibaba felt his life flash before his eyes when Hakuei glared at him. "I-I mean, when he finds out that you're sick. That's what I meant to say, ha, ha, ha…please don't kill me." ducking he hid behind Morgianna who had also taken a step back in fear. Aladdin hurried to hide behind her as well, even though both of them had grown bigger than her over the years. Alibaba scolded Aladdin under his breath, 'get your own hiding spot!' Morgianna shook her head.

Hakuryuu tried to soften his sister's worry. "H-Hakuei, it's not a bad thing that Sinbad's here, right? I mean, he's the dad so," her eyes started to glow in anger. "I mean, he would be IF you were having a kid, which, obviously, you're not, ha, ha, MORGIANNA HELP!" he also ran around behind Morgianna with the other two. The fourth magi, the king of Balbaad, and the prince of the Kou empire everybody.

But once she had calmed down she decided it was best to explain. "No, that's not the problem. Part of the problem is I want to figure out this whole problem before he can find out and start worrying." True. It was kind of amusing when Sinbad worried, but as his friends they didn't want him to worry.

"But mostly because I left Sindria without telling him why…and once he knows that I am okay, he's going to be mad." That made them all freeze. Oh boy. An angry Sinbad was a force to be reckoned with. Worst for them was that they knew he would never hurt Hakuei, so that means the nearest witnesses would be the ones to take the fall. AKA, them.

Kouha was the only one who seemed to be excited about Sinbad's arrival. "Do you want me to 'stall' him?" he pulled out his sword and it began to glow the same colour as the fire in his eyes had become. "Permanently?"

"Yes, stall! Someone needs to stall him that would be good!" everyone recoiled in shock. "I mean, not the permanently option, just stalling him. And someone stop Kouha." Koumei jumped into action to run and catch his brother as he ran out of the room with a vengeance. "But we need someone to stop him, until we can find out what's wrong with me."

"If you want I can make a list," Judal offered. "You can't cook, you're bossy, you follow your heart more than your head, get angry really easily, violent, to tidy, boring,"

"You're not helping Judal!" She shouted at him, who was gifted by his second book in the head. He was the one who was going to need a doctor by the end of the day. "Kougyoku, how about you go and try to stall him?" maybe both Judal and his wife would be in the hospital soon, if Kougyoku didn't start breathing again.

"M-m-m-me? Stall Sinbad? What am I supposed to say?"

"I don't know, tell him that I'm, um, talking to Judal. He won't want to come find me then." Judal looked annoyed at first, but thought about it, then beamed in pride. It didn't seem to help Kougyoku though. She didn't know how to stall people, she was a terrible liar. What was she supposed to say, how was she supposed to act? Even if she knew how, would she have still been able to do it? Part of her wanted to ask her husband to help…but she also knew that his version of 'stalling' was just as deadly as Kouha's.

"I-I'll do my best!" spinning on her heels she hurried out of the room to try and find Sinbad before he found them.

When she had left Alibaba turned back to the group. "Well what are we supposed to do? We don't have a doctor who can help her." At the question Aladdin jumped up and down in the air with his hand raised, begging _pick me, pick me! _"…yes Aladdin."

"I already said, let's get Sphintus! If Sinbad's here, than Sphintus is here, and he can help!" Hakuei hesitated. It wasn't that she didn't trust Aladdin's friend, and friend of Aladdin she knew was someone who could help. But the problem was, he said that he was with Sinbad. The only way to get to him would be to find Sinbad.

"That's a good idea…but until we are sure he isn't still with Sinbad, let's try and think of an alternative, alright?" Aladdin pouted and almost felt guilty, but she had bigger problems to deal with. "Let's go see the kou magicians. They will probably give us the right answer."

"What are you expecting them to tell you that I, a freaking MAGI, can't?" Judal fumed in his little corner. "Face it Queeny, I'm the best magician around, and those amateurs aren't going to tell you anything that I didn't. You know I'm right and you just don't want to admit it!" Angrily she spun around and turned on Judal, causing the others to all quake in fear.

"For the last time," she spoke in a low voice, steadily getting louder and louder with every syllable. "I. Am. Not. PREGANT!"

And to add to the groups usually 'perfect' timing, that was when the door flung open. Everyone turned, expecting to see Koumei having brought Kouha back from his rage, but they were all sorely mistaken. They were their of course, but standing in front of them was…wasn't good. Sphintus, Masrur, and Jafar.

"O-oh…hi guys…" Masrur didn't say anything, but his eyes had widened so much it looked like they were going to pop out of his head. Jafar on the other hand had froze, and began stuttering nervously.

"Y-your. Your…you're…" Maybe he was stuck. "You…how…Sinbad….how…"

"Hakuei, I think you broke your husband's advisor." And then Jafar fainted.

…..

"Oh, so you aren't sure if you are or not?" Jafar sat in a chair with a glass of water next to him, afraid that he might faint again. The group sat around him after they had explained the predicament, as well as stopping Kouha from trying to run away again.

"Well, we're pretty sure." A large bowl was thrown at Alibaba's head, and he just barely dodged it. "I mean, it's undecided. That's why we were going to find Sphintus to ask him to help us out," he explained, gesturing to Sphintus who sat at the side. "Do you think you can help us out?" the cocky magician grinned through his smoke pipe.

"Oh yeah sure. That's an easy one. Telling if someone is pregnant or not is medic magician's first and easiest class. Of course, you'd have to be pregnant for at least a week to be certain. How long have you been sick your highness?" Hakuei had never been comfortable being called that. Now more and more people were calling her that since she was the queen of Sindria. Ugh.

"Just Hakuei is fine. And I think I've been sick for at least two weeks." With a smile he got up and stretched out his arms.

"Than that should be no problem. All I need to do is examine your head, than I would need a magic lab to analyze the data." He turned to Kouemi. "You guys got one of those, right?" he glared at him.

"Yes, we have 'one of those.' It's three doors down the hall to the right." Sphintus nodded, than held up his staff preparing to work.

"Alrighty then. Hold still ma'am." Hakuei sat up and Sphintus walked around behind her.

"IS SHE GONNA DIE?" Koumei Shushed Kouha so that Sphintus could concentrate on the queen. Taking a deep breath he placed both hands on her head and began to concentrate on the rukh. His staff started to glow and a mist of rukh began to form a blue and white mist around her head. It felt funny. Almost as if she was underwater. Even though she knew that she wasn't wet, she still felt water around her, and unconsciously she held her breath. Then she felt a sharp pain on her left side and let out a yelp. "AH! SHE'S DYING!"

"Your sis is fine Prince. You can relax now ma'am." Carefully she opened her eyes to realize she didn't feel wet anymore. Turning she found Sphintus holding the blue mist in his hands. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a flask and sucked the mist into it.

"How can you tell if she is pregnant through that thing?" Kouha asked the magician sceptically. It looked to him just like some kind of poison. He really didn't trust this guy. The snake around his neck was giving him some cred though.

"When someone's pregnant, the hormones and the way that their brain functions is affected. We are taught to examine this and decipher exactly what it mean. This should be enough of data. Anyone wanna come help me figure this out?" Kouha volunteered, excited to make friends with the snake. But Koumei worried that he would sneak away to kill Sinbad, so he went instead. Once the two of them were gone, Hakuei turned back to the group with a smile.

"See guys? Once Sphintus gets back, he'll prove that I'm just sick. Than everything is going to be-"

"Hakuei!"

"-Fine."

The group all turned around to see Sinbad hurrying in the doorway, with Kouen and Kougyoku on his heels. Sinbad looked like he couldn't decide if he should be angry or relieved. Kouen's face didn't change from his normal expressions. Kougyoku looked very nervous, fumbling trying to catch up to them. Unfortunately Hakuei guessed that even if she did catch up it wouldn't matter. When her husband had that look, it was as if he was on his own personal mission. And she was the target.

She groaned "Oh f-"

"Sister, not in front of master Aladdin!"

"-fantastic."


	5. It's a boy

It's a boy

Sinbad marched right up to her, ignoring the panicked look on her face. "Hakuei, what the heck happened?" oh boy, he was really mad. He hadn't called her love like he usually did.

"Uh, nothing happened. Really, it's all fine!" glancing around Sinbad she shot Kougyoku an annoyed look and mouthed at her, _you were supposed to stall him! _She sent an apologetic look back and mouthed, _I tried! It didn't work! _

Flashback

Kougyoku had gotten lucky this time. As she had run over all of the kou palace looking for Sindria's king, she had finally ran into them searching through the library. Boy, if they had only arrived a little while ago they really would have found her. "K-king, Sinbad, brother En!" both of them turned, confused to see a red faced Kougyoku running towards them. Kouen had thought his sister and Judal had left to go and so he could wreak havoc, *cough* help their neighboring country. She hurried over to the two of them, but before she could begin, she had to stop to catch her breath. "T-thank goodness…I've been looking everywhere for you-" but she caught herself. Was that what she was supposed to say if she was stalling him? Maybe she was supposed to deny everything. What was it Judal did when he was trying to avoid trouble again. "I-I mean, what are you doing here? I thought you were at Kou speaking to Yunan the dungeon capturer…" both of them looked confused. Oops. That wasn't right. "Ah…I mean…"

"Sister, we are looking for Hakuei. According to Sinbad she came her a while ago, but didn't explain why." oh no, straight to the point. What should she do? What should she say? "Have you seen her anywhere?" OH NO NOT THAT QUESTION! ANYTHING BUT THAT QUESTION, WHAT WAS SHE SUPPOSED TO SAY?

"O-oh Queen Hakuei you mean. Pff, no, when would I have seen her? She's supposed to be in Sindria, it would be so weird if she came to visit without a word. B-Besides, what reason would she have to come to visit for? I mean, of course she would want to visit siblings, but she can do that whenever she wants, wow that is so weird her not explaining herself. Well maybe she had a really good reason, like she was sick and didn't know what it was or something like that. Or no, we aren't sure if she's sick, she might be really fine, but that's not what we were talking about right? Perhaps she decided to turn back and really isn't here, right? You never know-" both of them stared at her. Kougyoku ran over what she had said in her head. And realized her blunder.

"I mean…no I haven't seen her."

"…Kougyoku…"

"Okay, I've seen her!" she broke down, trembling as she tried to cover up for her mistake. "But she's fine really! Don't go looking for her, there's nothing to worry about! I mean, there kind of is something to worry about, but at the same time it will all be fine, so don't worry about it! We can't really decide what's wrong with her, but I'm sure we will eventually! For now you should probably just leave it alone, she'll come find you if she's okay."

"IF she's okay?"

"…I mean, I don't know where she is."

"Sister, it's pretty evident that you do." she gulped. Oh why hadn't they sent someone like Koumei instead of her? She hated lying, this just wasn't fair!

"No, no, no, no I don't. Ask anyone, I was with Judal in the library this morning! We were making towers from the scrolls, then we were playing dodgeball with them, and earlier we had tried to decorate all of them with some fancy paint that Judal had found, then we played don't step on the floor using them as footsteps. Judal won that one, but that's because he cheated by flying."

"You did WHAT to my scrolls?" this wasn't working.

"Sister Kougyoku," Sinbad tried, lowering his voice to the charming one that was best when getting information. Gently he held her hand and she looked up at him nervously. She wasn't in love with him anymore, sometimes she even called him brother as well, but that meant she had an even softer spot for him. No matter how she cared for him, he could still charm her to tell him what he wanted. Sometimes Sinbad wished Hakuei would fall for his tricks as easily as she did. "Please help. I just want to make sure your sister is all right, I'm worried about her. You can understand that, having to worry about Judal all the time." Kougyoku's eyes widened realizing that was true, and Sinbad knew he had her. Kouen on the other hand took a step back a little freaked out. He could see little sparkles dancing around him.

"All you have to do is tell me where she is. I promise you won't get in trouble for it." he lost her for a second with that line as she shook her head.

"Y-you can't promise that Sinbad-kun! You know she gets mad when I help you out a lot." Sinbad couldn't argue with that. Before Hakuei had been engaged to him, Kougyoku had told her about what she thought of him, and she was able to figure out quickly what he was doing. He had hoped that she would get angry at her, but instead she turned on HIM. For a while Sinbad really thought he would never talk to her because she was so angry at him for deceiving and leading on her sister like that. Before she got to know him she had been careful that Kougyoku always had someone around when she talked to him so he wouldn't hurt her.

And you don't even want to KNOW what Hakuei did when she found out about Zeper.

"Don't worry, I'll take all the blame," he reassured her, being completely honest with that. Even if he didn't she would still get mad at him anyway. "Please Kougyoku. Aren't we family now? And family helps each other right?" gulping, she nodded.

"Y-yes, your right. But s-she's my family to, and I need to help her! And she told me to stall you so that she could find out what's wrong with her before you find her-No, she did not ask me to stall, she didn't really! That wasn't true, no one was asked to stall, what are you talking about, don't be silly. She was too busy eating watermelon in the kitchen while Aladdin was trying to eat his food-I mean, in the garden, not the kitchen! Everyone knows that the watermelon is grown in the garden. No, I mean, um, she hates watermelon, so she wouldn't eat it at all!"

"…so she's in the kitchen." Again she gulped and her cheeks turned red in embarrassment.

"Um….um….um…." Sinbad grinned and squeezed her hand.

"Thank you so much Kougyoku-chan. Don't worry about her being mad at you. She'll be too busy answering to me to notice." He patted her shoulder before letting go and heading on his way towards the kitchen. Kougyoku just stood there like a statue for a few seconds, fear freezing her in place. Kouen watched her for a second…then patted her on the back.

"…we need to teach you to lie."

"Oniisan!"

End flashback

"H-he's tricky! They saw right through me!" she explained as she hurried to hide behind Judal. Hakuei wanted to glare at her cousin some more but new that she shouldn't. It was her fault for sending her to stall Sinbad, who probably was one of the trickiest human beings she knew. And Kougyoku really didn't like lying. But she didn't have time to think about that. She had bigger problems now.

"What's going on Hakuei? First you leave without an explanation, the doctors all saying you aren't feeling well, and now Kougyoku comes saying they don't know what's wrong with you?" oh great, she said that? Now she really WAS doomed.

"D-don't worry Sinbad. I was just coming to talk to K-Kouha, he wanted me to visit. Isn't that right Kouha?" Kouha quickly nodded, but didn't move forward at all. Even he was afraid of the anger rolling off Sinbad in waves. _Of all the times for him to not want to kill him, _Hakuei cursed her luck.

"And you didn't tell me? Do you have any IDEA how worried I was?" oh man, she was so dead. Gulping, she decided to try and turn the tables on him so that she could get out of her mistake.

"W-well what's that supposed to mean? Don't you trust me to be able to take care of myself? I'm insulted Sinbad, you should know that I can take care of myself!" Sinbad didn't fall for it.

"You. Left. Without. A. WORD!"

"And I was fine! And I told Spartos and Hinahoho that I was leaving." Did they forget to tell him? If that was so, they could take the blame, yes she was safe! But Sinbad shook his head, still very angry at her.

"You told them you were coming to Kou, but you didn't explain why. The only thing I got was that the doctors said you weren't feeling well!" snap. She forgot to tell the doctors that it was confidential.

"Er…I forgot?"

"YOU DON'T FORGET ANYTHING!"

"Oh come on, I'm human! Everyone forgets something one day or another!" Sinbad continued to fume, and Hakuei knew that she had to do something to die the flames down. She always got nervous whenever he was angry like this. It wasn't how he got angry when he did against his enemy, this was just an annoyed angry. Honestly, she would have preferred the other kind though. At least if he was angry at her in a battle, he could fight it out. When he was angry at someone he cared about, he would either get even, or make them do something to make up for it. This wasn't going to end well for her. She had to claim her innocence before Sinbad got any ideas.

"What the heck is going on? Why did you come to Kou without an explanation? Is something wrong?"

"No, no, nothing's wrong…"

"Kougyoku said something was wrong with you." _You've got to be kidding me, _Hakuei groaned in her head. Silently she turned and gave a death glare to Kougyoku who hid her face behind Judal's braid.

"I made a list if you want," Judal called. "She's bossy, she can't cook, and she doesn't trust anyone. You want to add in? You're her husband so you should know some other stuff to." Sinbad just barely glanced at Judal, and Judal feared he was staring his death in the face.

"How about you add just how much TROUBLE she is in for this?" oh no oh no oh no oh no, WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY? "Don't you think I'm going to let this go love! We are going to have a LONG talk about this when we get back!" on the bright side, at least he was calling her love. That meant that she wasn't going to die. Again she tried to turn the tables on him, out of fear of losing her life.

"Why do I have to report to you where I go?" as she pointed that out, she realized that she was kind of ticked off at that. "I'm not a child Sinbad, I can take care of myself! Do I have to tell you everywhere that I go? You don't always tell me where you're going. How is that fair huh? Aren't we supposed to be equals?" Sinbad's anger died down a bit when his mistake was pointed out to him. He tried to defend his position while still being angry at her.

"W-we are, and you don't have to tell me everywhere that you go, but the Kou Empire is different! It's so far away, and going that far without explanation,"

"I was visiting family! That's always what I do when I come to Kou."

"Not always! Sometimes you have to come for discussions about something happening in Kou."

"If that were true than you would have been called to! Besides, I'm still a general of Kou, so you know that I need to come here on my own sometimes. You go on long trips all the time, why can't I?"

"If I'm gone for a long time I always take you with me! Stop turning this around on me, you're the one on trial here."

"Oh, so I'm on TRIAL now?"

"Dude, this is hilarious," Judal whispered to Hakuryuu, as the fight continued in front of them. Hakuryuu snuffed at his friend, still disturbed by his definition of humor. "Can we get some popcorn here?" he called to the chefs. Way to help out.

"Um," Hakuryuu hesitated to interrupt the fight. It was scary when they fought. Both of them were very stubborn, which meant their fights would last a long time. But what was worse, they were both very strong, which meant when they fought, stuff would break. Like, bones. "If we aren't needed here, then we'll just,"

"NO!" Sinbad screamed, causing all of them to jump. "You lot stay here! I'm not done with you for hiding this from me!"

"We didn't know that she was coming!"

"Technically, we aren't from your country," Judal told him, annoyed he was being bossed around by the boss of another country.

"SHUT IT!" never mind. He could complain later, that's alright.

"Stop yelling them around, it's not their fault you don't trust me!" Sinbad turned back on Hakuei.

"I don't trust YOU? Hakuei, obviously something is going on and if you trusted me, than you would tell me!" at the thought of telling him what they were all thinking caused her to stop in her tracks. Before she could catch up again Sinbad saw her hesitation. "Ah ha! So there IS something you're hiding from me!"

"N-no! What would I be hiding from you? When have I ever hid anything from you?" Sinbad stared at her. "Okay, I have a few times, but I'm not now!" he continued to stare. "Look, it's not that big a deal, I'll explain it later." Stare. "STOP STARING, IT'S CREEPY!"

"Hakuei, I know you're hiding something from me! Either you tell me what it is or we are heading back to Sindria right now!"

"NO!" both she and Kouha screamed. They glanced at Kouha and he shuddered under their glances, so Hakuei continued. "We can't leave!"

"Why not?"

She hesitated, trying to come up with an explanation. "Um…well…we just can't."

"You either tell me what is going on, or we leave."

"I already told you, nothing is going on!"

That's when the door opened. Sphintus appeared with Koumei behind him, but he was to focused on the papers he held to see the scene. Too bad for her.

"Hey Queen Hakuei, I got the test results back. Congrats, you really are pregnant. From what I can tell, it's a boy, so far only one that I can see. Yours and King Sinbad's, but I'm guessing you knew that already. About three weeks pregnant actually, I thought you said that it was only two. Looks like he's healthy, no problems with breathing or anything," that's when he decided to look up, and saw the scene in front of him. "Am I interrupting something?"

Aladdin nodded. "Yes. Yes you are."

"You're…Pregnant?" Sinbad slowly realized. "That...really? I thought you couldn't…" Hakuei looked just as stunned as he was.

"But…But I can't," Hakuei finally protested, panic starting to appear on her face. "No, I can't have kids! Because of that injury in the dungeon, I can't!" Sphintus blinked at her as he tried to remember her medical files he had read over. Than grinned in what looked like was pride.

"Oh yeah. I fixed that." The whole room became silent.

"…what?"

"Yeah, fixed it a while ago. Whatever doctors you had when you got out of the dungeon must have sucked, there was another way to fix that injury. So remember that time when you all had that big battle with al-thamen and you brought Hakuei to me to be healed? Well I noticed the mess up and was able to heal you so you were back to normal. Your welcome." She didn't thank him. She just continued to stare at him in shock.

"You…you fixed me."

"Yup. It was pretty easy actually, it's sad those other doctors weren't able to do it."

"So…I am pregnant."

"Yup. And from what I can tell it's going to be a boy. Hey, are you going to name him after me? Cause that would be cool!" Kouha broke into the boys dreams in a rage.

"NO, no my nephews name is going to be picked by me! His name is either Kouha junior or thunderbolt!" everyone shuddered at the horror of those names. Sphintus and Judal began arguing with him again over what name it should be. Hakuei, unable to decide what to say, had to take a step back to balance herself, and Hakuryuu came over to make sure she was alright. Jafar on the other hand wasn't positive how he should react to this information. As for how he was feeling, he was happy of course. His country was finally getting an heir, someone to take over the throne once Sinbad passed away. Not to mention he could never be mad at the life of a child. But to show it, he wasn't sure he should. Mostly because, he had no idea how Sinbad was going to take it. Yes, Sinbad had never wanted to get married before Hakuei, but he had never said anything about kids. Like, ever. Jafar didn't think he had an opinion about it. Would he be happy with this? Would he be upset, not want to raise the child? Than Sinbad spoke up, which answered Jafar's unspoken question. Well…it sort of did.

"Hey you three!" he yelled at Aladdin, Judal and Kouha. "You three don't get to pick MY son's name!" they all looked at him. "He's my son, so I should get to pick the name!" Jafar's mouth gapped open. THAT was his only concern? The NAME? The poor child wasn't even born yet!

"Please stupid king," Judal stuck his tongue out at him. "Like you could think of anything better than the names we thought of." They all looked at him. "What? Stupid prince was perfect! Just like his dad huh?"

"He's not your son he's mine! I get to pick the name!"

"Says who? I don't remember it being a rule!"

"Yeah, you didn't call dibs!"

"I don't have to call dibs when it's my son!"

The four of them continued to argue, and Hakuryuu couldn't help but to laugh at the group as they did. Smiling he turned to face his sister. "Sinbad seems to be on board to the idea of having a kid. What do you think huh? Are you going to let him name your," that Hakuei wasn't there. Hakuryuu looked around the room until he spotted her- walking out into the garden outside. "Sister?"


	6. Resolving Worries

Resolving worries

Hakuei stumbled outside, completely unaware of where she was going and what she was doing. All she knew was that she needed to get some air. She had to somehow cope with this information. _No, no, it can't be true. I can't be having a son, I can't! _Her thoughts were screaming at her to panic, run away, do something. But her body was so numb with the new information that all she could do was continue walking, trying to calm her brain down so it would match with the speed that her body was going at.

"Hakuei!" she numbly turned to see Hakuryuu running over to her, panting slightly. When he reached her he had to stop, resting his hands on his knees while catching his breathe. "Where…where are you going? You just left!" It took her a moment to register the words. They were simple enough, but she was having to hard of a time managing them.

"Oh. Uh, I was…I was just trying to get some fresh air. It's kind of stuffy…in there." Hakuryuu knew his sister better than to fall for that. Taking her hand he led her over to a bench and the two of them sat down. As Hakuei did her stomach hurt and she winced. But it was all in her head really. She was fine, but mentally she was afraid. Very, very afraid.

"What's wrong Hakuei? You just left without a word, when you should be in there celebrating. But you seem really upset, and don't try to lie to me and say you aren't, I'm your brother and I can tell when you're lying. Most of the time that is." Hakuei laughed at that, but her head was still hung with her eyes trained on the ground. "Sister, I don't understand why you are upset. You're having a son, isn't that good? Or are you afraid of having the kid, because I'm sure your figure won't change too much, and besides you will look the same afterword's," the death glare he was receiving from her was his first hint to SHUT UP. Sighing, she turned back and stared at her hands, stroking the scars that she had on her since she was young. And some far more recent than she would like to say. Her mother had been the cause of many of them, back then and not long ago. Her mother.

"Hakuryuu, it's not that I hate the child. I'm worried about him, that's the problem." Hakuryuu didn't seem to register, so Hakuei continued. "I don't think I would be a good mom." His response was immediate.

"What? Of course you would be a good mother One-saan! You took care of me when I was little, and raised me. You even helped take care of Kouha and many of the children in the royal palace. Why would you be a bad mother?"

"Because then, it wasn't my child. This…boy I think…is my son. And it's different then." Hakuryuu tried to argue, but she decided to skip all the dodging and just get right to the root of the problem. "Do you remember mother?" at once Hakuryuu's face sobered.

"Of course I do. Why wouldn't I?" of course hers was a stupid question. Considering that the darkest part of his life was because of that women. Great, he even had Hakuei referring to her as that women. But she really wasn't sure what else to call her anymore. Even when she was younger her brothers advised her not to call her mother. She hadn't understood why, but by the time she did her brother had already fallen.

"You remember what our childhood was like with her? When we were little we thought that it was sunny, and she was kind and sweet. But looking back on it, even when we thought of her as our mother still, was it really?" Hakuryuu tried to shake off his anger and focus on the predicament his sister was trying to get at.

"What do you mean? Before we…realized the truth about her, we thought she was kind, didn't we?" Hakuei shook her head. After Hakuryuu had told her what their mother was, she had done some digging, and tried to think back on their childhood. And realized it wasn't so.

"We thought she was. But we didn't know any better yet did we? A while ago I was looking back on those days, and it wasn't. Remember, she used to make us read those books on slavery and encourage other laws like that? Then when we didn't want to she would lock us in the library till we did? We used to think that was parenting, but what kind of parent leaves their child, alone and afraid in a room without any light? And before, when she would take us on trips to meet all of her friends, all the bankers and the like. We thought we were pretty cool meeting all those adults, but she was trying to get us to like them so we would join them. It was her plan, to use us." As Hakuei told her stories, Hakuryuu began realizing that all of what she said was true. Actually, every kind action his mother ever did was for that reason. To get them on her side, and to teach them her ways. Teaching them the Touran language, punishing them whenever they spoke to a slave, all of it. It would have made Hakuryuu angrier, but he already had enough anger for her to spare. It was lucky they had their older brothers to raise them when their mother wasn't there, or they would have been in much more trouble than they were.

"Did you know she tried to kill me?" Hakuryuu froze. That, he didn't know.

"What?"

"When I was little. An infant, too young to remember. I read about it in Hakuyuu's old journals." Her brother just stared at her in stunned silence, so she continued. "Apparently he and Hakuren came to visit me in my crib and found her holding a pillow to my face. It said that she had been smiling, and got mad at Hakuryuu when he pulled me away from her. She said that she never wanted a girl. That she couldn't use me at all. That I was," Hakuryuu didn't let her finish,

"Hakuei, don't think that! Our mother was evil, and let's be honest here, a nut job. Nothing she said was true, she was just sick, twisted,"

"Yes Hakuryuu, I know that. Besides, why would I care about her opinion anymore? I was just trying to prove a point." sighing in relief, Hakuryuu waited for her to continue. "Our mother was awful. She used us, did terrible things to us, and hurt us in so many ways. You fell because of her. If she had a say in it, you still would be fallen. And I never…never really wanted to have a kid because…she's my mom, the only mom I had…so who's to say I won't be as bad as her?" that was when Hakuryuu understood. It would make sense for her to worry about that. Even though there mother was never really there for her, unlike him, she would have been the only mother figure that she ever had.

Gently, he took her hands and forced her to look at him. "Sister, you don't need to worry about that. You raised me and I'm fine aren't I? You know that the way that mother tried to raise us was wrong, and you know how you really are supposed to take care of a child. Look, the child isn't even born yet, and you are already worried about him."

"But I'm worrying with a justified cause-"

"That doesn't matter. You're still worried about him. You're going to make a great parent sister, and I'm sure that your son is going to turn out all right. Even if you somehow become the worst parent in the world, he'll be fine. You've got all of us to help you out. There's the generals from Sindria, all of your cousins from Kou, I'm sure that the Kouga people will want to help, and not to mention the boy's FATHER. You aren't alone, and I can personally guarantee that one way or another, your son will turn out alright…as long as mister Alibaba isn't one of the ones to help raise him." Even in her depressed state Hakuei was able to laugh at that.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" both of them turned to see Alibaba running towards them. "What's up with the two of you, you just left? And what do you mean I can't help raise him, I would be great with kids!" yes, Hakuryuu respected Alibaba just as much as anyone, but even he wasn't inclined to agree on him with that.

"Well the examples would say otherwise." Alibaba frowned in confusion, so Hakuryuu explained. "When you first met Aladdin, where was one of the first places you took him?" At that memory, Alibaba froze. He knew that that would come back to haunt him someday. Darn it Aladdin, that wasn't supposed to be something that you tell EVERYONE YOU EVER MET. Hakuei looked confused, and asked her brother just what it was that he had taken Aladdin to. "Oh, master Aladdin told me it was-"

"DON'T SAY IT!" he screamed, tackling Hakuryuu off the bench and to the ground. "Will you let that go it was years ago! And Aladdin was ten!" Hakuryuu laughed pulling himself into a sitting position.

"And yet he's the only experience you have with kids that I have seen."

"That's not true! There's Olba!"

"He's only 4 years younger than you, that doesn't count!"

"I knew Kouha when he was a kid."

"You met him in the middle of a battle!"

"How is that MY fault?"

The two of them continued yelling at each other, reminding Hakuei of an old married couple from the Kouga tribe. She let out a laugh or two when Alibaba started to make a attack on Hakuryuu's 'great' parenting skills. At least Hakuryuu had helped her feel a little better. But take that problem away, she still had things to worry about.

But she would have to talk to Sinbad about that.

Later…

Hakuei leaned over the side of the boat, watched the waves as they gently rolled past. It was very late, but she couldn't sleep. At least the sight of the stars in the sky and the fresh air was helping her. Breathing in the air, she rubbed her belly in thought. It was strange, the prospect that she was having a kid. At least it was a boy, she had most experience with taking care of boys after Kouha and Hakuryuu. Part of her was curious as to what he was going to look like when he was older. He would probably be more like his father…she hoped he didn't grow to like wine as much as him.

"Love, what are you still doing awake?" surprised, she turned to see Sinbad walking over. He was only wearing pants and she guessed she might have woken him up when she got out of bed. Yawning he walked up behind her, hugging her from behind and leaning into her. Her cheeks turned red much to Sinbad's delight. Even after the years they were married she still blushed when he held her. He would never get tired of that. "Come back to bed. You've had a big day, you must be exhausted."

Hakuei shook her head, her hair brushing against his chest as she did. "It's okay Sin, I'm not tired. You can go back and rest though, I'm alright up here." Sinbad debated the thought for a moment.

"Do you want to be left along for a bit?" Hakuei thought about that as well. In truth she didn't. Well, she did, but now that he was there she wanted to talk to him about all that had happened as well. But at the same time, he was tired, and it wouldn't do any good for him to stay up to late.

Even though she really wanted to talk to him, she shook her head. "You can go to bed Sin."

"Okay. Then I'll stay." Hakuei frowned. She had to look up so she could look into his eyes so he could see the question in hers. He grinned his cheerful grin down at her and kissed her forehead, making her cheeks turn even pinker. "You didn't say you wanted me to go, you just told me to. Whenever you don't answer the specific question it means that you don't want me to do what you're asking." At his analysis she stared at him in shock and he beamed in pride. "I know more about you than you do yourself. Unless you want all your secrets to be told to the world, it looks like you're stuck with me." Hakuei rolled her eyes at him, but kept the smile on her face.

"You probably should go and rest Sin. It's really late, and you need you beauty sleep unless you want to look as old as you are."

"I'M NOT OLD! I'M IN MY 30'S, THAT ISN'T OLD!" she laughed as he continued to defend himself. Sure, he may tease her a whole LOT, but she had a few good comebacks of her own. "Besides, you're not that much younger than me. So that makes you old if I'm old!"

"If you say so," she sang.

"You're just trying to change the subject," Sinbad snuffed at her. And out of fear for continuing that line of conversation, Sinbad decided to change the subject as well. "What's bothering you Hakuei?"

"Nothing."

"Liar." Darn.

"Is it about our son?" he coaxed gently, but his words made her shiver. Sinbad, thinking it was from the cold, hugged her even tighter. All that did was make her blush more. "Hakuryuu was saying you were worried about him." HAKURYUU told him? That traitor! When she saw him again, she hoped she would be in some kind of anger mood swing so that she could make him sorry he ever said a word! Behind her, Sinbad remained silent for a moment, allowing Hakuei to gather her thoughts. The good thing about Sinbad, he understood Hakuei. He got when she needed to be alone, when she needed someone to talk to, or when she just needed someone to hang around. He read her like a book, and even though he constantly used it to his advantage, Hakuei was grateful for it.

"Yes I was worried…Hakuryuu helped me out though. Now I just…what do you think about all this?" Sinbad pulled back a bit in surprise. His reaction made her uneasy, but she decided it was best not to comment on it.

"What I think about it?"

"Yes, I mean…are you alright with having a kid? We never really talked about it, other than when I told you I probably couldn't. But now we are so…I just want to know. You never really mentioned anything about it before."

"Well that's cause I never thought I was ever going to HAVE one," he explained. "When I would flirt with other girls, I made sure I couldn't have a kid with them because it wouldn't be fair to the boy if he was born without his dad around. I mean, I would have gone back for the kid, but I wouldn't be in love with his mom, so that wouldn't be fair to him." at the mention of Sinbad possibly having a kid with someone else, Hakuei turned away. He really wasn't helping. "A-and though I love you, you said that you weren't able to have a kid, so I didn't think about it."

Shaking her head to forget the first part of what he said, she tried to keep the conversation going. "Okay, but now we are. So what do you think about it now?" she worried that he didn't want to have a kid. Somewhat because that would put distance between her and him, but mostly because that would affect the child a lot. No matter what she didn't want her son to grow up thinking he was unwanted.

"I'm thrilled obviously." Annoyed she let out a sigh.

"Sin, you don't have to lie, just be honest." Sinbad frowned at her. Moving his hands to hers he spun her around so that she was facing him. Gently he pulled her closer so that she could rest her head on his chest, and he put one arm around her back.

"I'm not lying. I really am. Sure, I never thought about it before, but that doesn't mean I was against the idea. My country is my family, I've always said that. But unlike most families, I was never as close to my citizens. We didn't have secret traditions or family dinners like I did with my family when I was younger. Now that I'm having a kid it's like I finally get what was taken from me when I was little." With his free hand he reached down and put his hand on her stomach. His hands were cold so she shuddered away from the touch momentarily. As she tried to step away he laughed and forced her to pull closer.

"Don't worry about it Hakuei. Our son's going to be fine." Even though she knew that, it was a relief to hear him say that. Sighing she allowed herself to rest on him, allowing him to take half of her worries. Sinbad smiled, and kissed her on the crown of her head. "Trust me. He's going to grow up great. We'll make sure he learns everything he need to know. Including fishing!" Hakuei laughed at her husband. He laughed to, but it sounded like he was just as serious.

"I can probably teach him how to fish. I wonder who's going to teach him what I don't know?" she giggled a bit, pulling back to smile at him.

"I don't think that we need to worry about that right now Sinbad." But as she said that, he didn't seem to hear her.

"Sharkkon can teach him how to swordfight. Or I could…no, Sharkkon's the expert." Hakuei raised an eyebrow at him cautiously.

"Sin, I don't think it's a problem,"

"What if he's a magician? We're both dungeon capturers, maybe that affects his power over the rukh. Then we could get Yamuriha to teach him, or perhaps we can get Aladdin to teach him. Then again, I'm not sure Aladdin would be the best influence for a kid."

"Really Sin, it's kind of early,"

"Jafar would be the best to teach him math. And politics, but I want to teach him how to read and write. Our son doesn't have to be a writer like me, but he defiantly needs to know how to read. Wait, Spartos or Hinahoho are going to have to teach him other languages, I don't know that many."

"Sin-"

"Drakon should be the one to teach him how to react in political situations. If I taught him, he'd be yelling at everyone. Masrur should teach him how to fight…naw, he might go too hard on him. He can teach him the basics at least."

"…"

"Pisti will feel left out if she doesn't get to teach him anything either. How about she just be the babysitter? No, she might be a little eccentric. How about she take him around to the forest and teach him about animal life? Not super important, but it can't be that bad. Just to be safe, I'll get Spartos to be there when she's training him."

"I'm going to go back to bed."

"He's probably going to want to come on my travels if he becomes anything like me. Probably cause a lot of problems to, running away and stuff." Hakuei peeled herself off of him and headed down to their room. "So I'll teach him about other cultures than. Or maybe you can help, you know a lot about ones in the east. You can also teach him the Toran language and to cook-, no never mind, Hakuryuu can teach him that. Than I can teach him some magoi fighting techniques…how does that sound Hakuei?" he turned, to see that Hakuei had disappeared, with the door to their room closing behind her.

"Love?"

**Hey everyone, I hope you liked this chapter. I'm posting it early because the next chapter won't be posted for a few more days. Sorry about that! **


	7. First Prince of Sindria

Over a year later

Jafar raised his eyebrows at his king and prince. "Sinbad, are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Oh yeah, it's a great idea." That was what he had said when he tried to give his son extra syrup on his pancakes one day. That was a dark day for Sindria. "Why wouldn't it be? He's going to have to learn how to fish someday." At the moment, Sinbad was with his son, both of them holding fishing rods over the large ship trying to catch fish as they went. Sinbad probably knew that they wouldn't catch anything being up that high, and with the boat moving, but he still wanted his son to learn something on the long trip.

"Sin, the fishing rod is too big for him. He's going to drop it." Sinbad shook his head like that was a minor detail.

"Don't worry about that, he can hold on, you know how strong he is. Unless it gets really wet, he'll be," but even as he said that, his son was leaning over the boat to try and get the line in the water more. But as he did, he was splashed by an oncoming wave. The boy was so surprised that the rod fell out of his hands. The three of them watched in silence as the rod fell, dropping to the sea with a 'sploosh.' They all said nothing. Jafar and Sinbad turned to look at his son nervously. The boy said nothing, staring at the first fishing rod he ever had float away. Then he turned to them with tears in his eyes. Sniffling, he pointed to the stick.

"P-papa...sniff…p-papa..." Sinbad jumped up and tried to comfort his son.

"No no, don't worry about it! Don't you worry son, you can get another one!" Jafar hurried away to grab another one while Sinbad tried to stop his son from crying. At the sound of the crying, Hakuei woke up from the nap she was taking. Yawning she straightened herself out and hurried up on deck. As she was heading up the crying had stopped when Jafar came back with another fishing rod. She opened the door to find Sinbad and her son hanging out on the edge of the boat, holding large fishing rods and focusing on the water. Well, there son was, Sinbad was partially focused on making sure his son didn't fall off the edge.

"Sinbad, what are you trying to do to our son?" Sinbad glanced back and smiled at his wife.

"I'm teaching him how to fish!" she couldn't decide whether she should sigh or laugh her heart out. Her son looked so adorable trying to hold onto the much too big for him fishing rod. He looked so focused on the water, as if he was expecting a large shark to come and bite his line any minute.

"Well you might want to start by getting him a smaller fishing rod, or all he's going to catch is the seaweed floating by." Sinbad glanced over as his son dropped the rod again. "Not to mention, he's only 10 months old. Are you sure he even knows what a fish is yet?"

"Of course he does! He's got fisherman blood in him!" but as he said that a large fish came swimming by the bottom of the boat. Their son leaned over so that he could see the little creature. His eyes widened in surprise and he started smiling the same smile that his father had. Sinbad grinned and whispered to his wife, "see? He knows what it is!" the infant turned back to his father, pointed at the fish and said,

"Bubble?" Sinbad frowned while Hakuei laughed and hugged her son from behind. The boy let out a laugh and when she pulled away, tried to walk over to her. He had learned to walk at a much quicker rate than most toddlers, though he was still tripping over his own feet a few times. Some people were amazed at the rate the child was growing and learning. Unfortunately the child was having a harder time with saying the right words correctly, not to mention always getting lost and breaking new things he found. But Sinbad insisted that he would learn. Heck, it was his son after all. Once he had gotten lost in the forests of Sindria, and when he came back Sinbad was almost proud, saying, 'he went on his first adventure!'

"Queen Hakuei, King Sinbad?" they both turned to see one of the navy bowing at them. "Excuse the interruption, but if you come to the other side of the ship you will see we are almost at the Kou Empire." Hakuei nodded to release him from his stance before scooping up her son and following him to the other side. Sinbad didn't come right away, preoccupied with wondering how he was going to teach his son what a fish was. The worry on his face was so evident Hakuei had to cover her laugh.

As the navy released the plank Hakuei was able to see her family all waiting there on the docks. Actually, half of them. Hakuryuu was away on a mission, and Judal and Kougyoku were traveling again. She didn't mind, since Hakuryuu came to visit her a lot more once her son was born. And Judal and Kougyoku came whenever they felt like. But Kouha, Kouen and Koumei all stood at the docks. Kouen looked slightly angry while Koumei looked scared, and she knew that Kouen had become impatient to discover what his nephew was like. Kouha was jumping up and down on the deck, and when he saw the child, he ran forward to greet him.

"Hey Sis, is this my nephew? Wow, he's so small. Do they make them in that size?" Hakuei laughed once again while her son was terrified at the intrusion into his personal space. He was looking at Kouha as if he was thinking, _I don't know you. You are something new, therefore, I must learn about you. Tell me, what are you? _Kouha reached out to hold him but her son held onto his moms hand with a death grip. Even for a child he was incredibly strong.

"It's okay Samson, you don't need to be scared of Uncle Kouha." Kouha frowned at her.

"You named him Samson? Not thunderbolt?" laughing she shook her head while putting him on the ground. He had to use her legs as a support to stand on his own feet, and he continued to hold them while he examined the strange creature that towered over him. The pink hair seemed to hold his curiosity the most.

"Yup. Samson Badr, 1st prince of Sindria." that just made Kouha even more confused.

"Badr? Is that Sinbad's last name?" she shook her head as Sinbad headed over to the two of them, finally stopped worrying about his son's confusion at fish.

"No, it was his father's name. But since Sinbad doesn't have a last name, we decided that could be his last name. We would have named him Badr, but decided that we should adopt the Kou empires tradition of having the first letter of his father's name." that didn't help Kouha, and he scratched his head even more confused.

"But then his name would be 'sin' something. Why'd you call him Samson?" Sinbad reached the two of them then and put his arm around his wife. Kouha bristled, still not approving of Sinbad, but he had learned to be respectful over the years. He didn't want to confuse poor Samson. When Samson realized he found another person he knew, he reached out with his other hand to grab his father's cloak so that he had two pillars of support.

"Because he's incredibly strong, for a kid, and we just couldn't resist." Kouha didn't understand, but shrugged anyway. From behind him his two brothers came over, their curiosity finally getting the better of them.

"So this is your son cousin Hakuei?" Koumei knelt down so that he could make eye contact, and the boys eyes widened at the sight of another new creature. Boy, he had hit the jackpot this time. He was making so many new discovery's, he should write a book. "He certainly does look like the two of you. Though, he looks more like Sinbad than Hakuei, if you don't mind me saying."

It was true, no one could deny that. Like his mom his hair was black, almost dark blue in different lights. It was thick like hers, but cut shorter than both his parents because he was always getting it caught on stuff. But at that age at least, his hair was the only similarity they could see. He had his father's golden eyes, his father's big smile, and the tan skin that came from living in Sindria. As the boy continued to move though, he realized that like his mother his cheeks turned a light shade of pink. Not nearly as much as his mothers, but more than Koumei had ever seen his father Sinbad blush. Koumei tried to smile at him, but Samson just stared at him as if he was his personal science experiment.

"What's the boy like?" Kouen asked, and Samson's attention was forwarded up at the other creature. From a child's point of view, he was a giant. With a stone cold face, and a pointy beard that, from his wild imagination, looked sharp enough to cut through skin. Kouen glanced down at him and gave a small head nod of respect. As he did Samson become horrified, afraid he was going to try and cut him with the red sword on his chin. He yelped and ran behind both of his parents to hide. Everyone else laughed except for Kouen, who frowned in confusion.

"Ha! Looks like Uncle Kouha has a better chance of being the favourite!" Kouha circled Hakuei to get to the boy and held out his hands for him to come. "Come on Samson, I'm not going to hurt you." Kouha wasn't helping. With his happiness had come the crazy look in his eyes that his enemies had grown to fear. Samson shivered even more and buried himself in his parent's cloaks. Kouha looked so dejected that a looming darkness surrounded him.

"Don't worry Kouha, your just new to him. I'm sure he'll warm up to you eventually." Kouha lit up at that and he put on his smile again.

"Yeah, in a bit. I bet he was scared of Hakuryuu when he first met him to anyway. I'm still on my way to being the favourite uncle." Hakuei didn't want to tell him that Samson had warmed up to Hakuryuu almost right away, since he looked so much like his mother.

Koumei decided to try and make friends with his little nephew. Walking around to see him, he decided to just give him a wave. To Samson, Koumei looked like the best option. He looked normal, take away the strange clothing he wore. While the bags under his eyes would have scared most children, Samson matched them to the times that he had seen them on the man Jafar. Whenever he had them, he never caught Samson doing something bad. So he decided that he would be the best place to start his adventure in this new kingdom. Hesitantly, he let go of his parent's legs and walked over to Koumei, holding his arms up for him to pick him up. "Hey Koumei, he likes you!" Kouha commented, jealousy dripping from his words.

Poor Koumei, on the other hand, had no idea what to do. "Um, um, how do you pick up a kid?" Even though Koumei waved his hands no Samson kept coming forward. So with no other choice he picked him up but when he did he took one hand in each of his and held him up in the air. This time even Kouen couldn't help but to laugh.

"K-Koumei, that's not how you're supposed to hold a toddler," Sinbad told him while trying to muffle his laughter. Koumei looked absolutely horrified at the baby staring at him in confusion. Already Sinbad's son had brought generals to their knees. Samson was confused at first, but then decided that it was a swing, like that thing that Masrur had built for him back at home. With a smile growing on his face he began swinging back and forth, causing Koumei to struggle to hold his balance. The rest of them laughed even harder when Samson began giggle happily and Koumei started asking them for help.

"I know how to hold him," Kouha mumbled, annoyed that he had gone to Koumei instead of him. At his annoyance Hakuei decided that Samson should give his youngest uncle a chance.

"Ah, here." Hakuei took Samson back from Koumei much to his relief and brought him over to Kouha. Samson, when he saw what his mom was doing, began to panic. He scrambled to try and climb over her shoulders back to safety, but his mom was too quick. By the time he was over to him he was almost whimpering, but then he made another important discovery. Hanging from the strange man's head were vines. Long vines made of pink. He remembered when he had gone with Miss Pisti to a jungle and showed him monkeys using vines to climb. He had wanted to try, but was too small. But these vines looked small enough. Now curious, he didn't even notice when he was given from his mother to the stranger. Instead he reached up and began playing with the pink vines, examining them carefully. "I think he likes your hair Kouha." Kouha smiled in delight.

"Yeah! See Kouen, these dreadlocks do have advantages to them!" Kouen frowned. He had been trying for years to convince his brother to cut his hair. Now all that work was gone. Samson continued to examine the dreadlocks, and once he thought that they were safe to climb, he pulled. Kouha's head jerked to the side and he let out a yelp. "Ow!" Samson was troubled, confused that he hadn't gotten anywhere new, so he tried again. The boy was so strong that it brought Kouha to the ground, using all his strength not to drop his adorable nephew. Samson looked around and realized he had moved, so he clapped happily at his accomplishment.

"Ugh, ah, I see what you mean by him being really strong!" Kouha managed out as he pulled himself to a standing position. "I guess he would have to be, since he's Sinbad's kid." At his words Sinbad almost gasped in shock. Then a smile grew on his face.

"Wow Kouha. That has to be the nicest thing you've said to me,"

"Finally, the stupid king did something right," Kouha finished absentmindedly. Sinbad hung his head in dejection and Hakuei patted him on the shoulder. Samson didn't notice, as Kouha held him out in front of him to get a better look. "You sure are small. How are you going to fight some day?" Hakuei giggled at Kouha who began tossing him up and down in the air, making Samson feel like a bird. When Samson looked like he had enough Kouha put him on the ground. The boy got up and walked around the new man to examine his strange white feet (boots). "Hey, isn't he a little young to be walking? I thought that wasn't for a while." Both of his parents shrugged.

"He's just an early bloomer I guess."

"Interesting…" Kouen mumbled, as he walked over to the boy to watch him. Koumei groaned and shook his head. Ever Since Kouen had heard about his nephew's birth he'd been very curious about him. Koumei wasn't sure why, but his brother was always looking for something new to learn about. From the looks of it Samson was just as curious, both of them never losing eye contact and watching each other's moves very carefully. "Hakuei, what does he do?"

"He likes playing games and finding new things."

"Does he have a large quantity of Magoi?"

"We're not sure yet."

"Can he speak already? What words does he know?"

"Mama, dada, masrur, bubble, Jafar, milk, Uncle Haku, and a few others."

"WHAT?" they all ignored Kouha.

"How strong is he?"

"Very strong for his age. Even the finalists are impressed by his strength."

"Does he know how to read?"

"A little bit." Koumei groaned as Kouen continued to question his cousin about his nephew. Kouen was so impatient to learn about him. Not only was he the son of Sinbad, the first class singularity and master of 7 djinns, but his mother was also one of the only female dungeons capturers yet. Him being so hungry for knowledge, Samson was the library of knowledge and new information that he had been wanting to discover for years. Samson looked very curious about him as well, looking up at him with wide eyed wonder. This was a strange, frankly scary looking man, but mama and dada were talking to him so casually. The man continued to speak, always short and with a deep voice. He kind of looked like Aunt Kougyoku who had come to visit. Were they the same person? No, this was a boy. Right? He really couldn't tell yet.

Koumei worried and glanced back at the dock. Some of the scholars were motioning towards him. Sinbad had to discuss with him and Kouha about a new threat from al-thamen that had come up in the land that they was on the border if their nation and his. It was part of the land Kouha was in charge of and Koumei was in charge of the relations between their two countries. But Kouen looked so absorbed in learning about Samson, he didn't think that they were going to get anywhere. Then again…Even though Kouen was the emperor, he didn't really have to be there for the discussion. Or at the most, he could come in later. Koumei was always the one who gave the ideas as long as Kouen came later to authorize them…

"So, Sinbad and Hakuei, we need to go and discuss the new threat as soon as possible. How about Kouen watch Samson while we all go and discuss things?" at the suggestion both Samson and Kouen turned to Koumei in terror. Samson mostly because Kouen did, and he didn't know what else to do.

"What? You want me to watch him?" he hoped that it was a joke, but her brother was completely serious. His face turned pale and he stared to speak quickly. And, for anyone who knew him, knew that he only did that when he was really, really, REALLY uncomfortable with something. "I can't watch a child!"

"It would be good. We need to talk about the new threat, and since you don't really have to be at the discussion you can watch Samson for Hakuei and Sinbad as well as get to know your nephew more."

"I want to babysit my nephew!" No one listened to Kouha. Again. He was starting to feel invisible.

"That sounds like a good idea," Hakuei agreed, gently pushing Samson in Kouen's direction. "Then you can also show Samson around Kou. He'll probably want to go to the gardens first, but don't let him eat anything he shouldn't." Normally Hakuei didn't like forcing other people to take care of her son, but it was just too funny to see the panicked look he only got three times before in his lifetime. "I'm sure he'll be fine with you. You and Eidis do a really good job of taking care of your daughter/son." (**OC character requested by Diclonious57)**

"Yes, but that's my son/daughter! I know how to take care of them." He glanced down at Samson who was staring at him with those big golden eyes in open curiosity. "I-I don't know anything about your son."

"Well then it's a perfect chance for you to get to know him. You were asking so many questions, I'm sure you want to know more." Of course he did, but he hadn't been planning on gathering that information firsthand. "Sinbad, don't you think that's a good idea?"

"Uh…" Sinbad clearly wasn't as on board with the idea as his wife was. It wasn't that he didn't trust Kouen, they had to since they were now allied. But he wasn't sure he trusted Kouen with his son. He didn't know how he took care of his own child, and before that the only time he had seen Kouen with a child was Aladdin. And he was 12. And he tried to kidnap him at magnostud. So that didn't leave very happy memories. Hakuei had no problem with it though, trusting her cousin completely. If she trusted him, it couldn't be that bad right? But still, Samson was quite a handful for even him to take care of. Maybe he should call over Yamuriha…

"Hey, if you don't want brother En to watch Samson, I can!"

And just like that, Kouen became Sinbad's favourite babysitter.

"Sounds fine by me," Sinbad flashed his charming grin at the horror struck Kouen. "We need to decide what to do with this threat as soon as possible. And I'm sure Samson being there while we discuss things probably wouldn't be the best idea."

"Besides," Koumei added just to continue teasing his older brother. "I'm sure that Kouen is exhausted from all the work that he's done already. Taking one afternoon off with his nephew would be a good idea for our emperor, don't you think Kouha?"

"I guess," Kouha grumbled, lost in the thought of defeat.

"Then it's settled," Hakuei said with a smile. Gently she pushed her son again until he walked over, very confused to the now frozen man with the red hair. "We'll come and pick him up once the meeting is over, alright?"

"I…I…um…" Kouen was at a loss for words, for the first time in his entire life. Sinbad go a thrill out of seeing the emperor of Kou so frozen for the first time ever.

"Make sure he doesn't break anything," Sinbad waved as Koumei began leading the group away. "He has a habit of doing that a lot." Samson turned and realized his father had disappeared, so he hurried on after him. But this time Sinbad stopped him and pushed him back towards Kouen again. "Samson, you're going to be staying with your uncle for a bit, okay?"

"Mama?" the poor boy was looking at his parents, the look of betrayal on his face was so heartbreaking that even Koumei wanted to go hug him. "Papa?" Why where is parents leaving him? He hadn't even done anything wrong yet! Sinbad knelt down and ruffled his son's hair.

"Don't worry Samson," he reassured him. "Uncle Kouen here's not that scary, he just doesn't talk a lot. Like Masrur, and you aren't scared of him." Samson didn't understand all of what his father was saying, but he was able to catch the name Masrur. But he didn't understand. Masrur looked so different from this man. Why would he put them in the same sentence? Standing up he hurried to follow the rest of the group, leaving Samson standing next to Kouen in complete confusion. With a smile he turned and waved back to Kouen, "See you later Brother Kouen!"

"I told you to stop calling me that!" Kouen shouted after him, but his words didn't reach him as he was already preoccupied speaking with the rest of them. So that left the two of them. Alone. The Emperor of the Kou Empire with the less than 2 year old prince of Sindria. Kouen turned and stared down at the boy. Samson stared up at the man. They continued staring. And staring….and staring…and staring….Samson got bored.

"Uh!" he grunted out, pointing towards something behind him. Kouen turned to see a bath towards the garden. Hakuei had said that he would want to go explore the garden.

"Do you want to go there?" Kouen tried asking him, expecting a response. Samson, who didn't even understand what a response was yet, just stared at him with an expectant expression, waiting to go. "Okay than…I can do this…" turning he headed in the direction. Samson followed close behind at first, so Kouen calmed down a bit.

But then Samson got impatient, ran ahead of Kouen, and was lost in his line of sight. "Samson!"

"WEEEEEEEE!"

**The end! Thank you all for reading and reviewing, I hope you all liked it! **


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